This invention relates to a shower head dispenser, and more particularly to the combination of a shower head and a liquid dispensing and mixing device.
The following U.S. patents disclose various types of liquid reservoirs attached to a water discharge outlet for dispensing liquid additives, such as soap, perfumes, disinfectants, bath oils, and water softeners, into the water stream discharged from the water outlet: U.S. Pat. No. 2,625,430: Murphy, Jan. 13, 1953; U.S. Pat. No. 2,705,091: Marchand, Mar. 29, 1955; U.S. Pat. No. 3,079,093: Bellows, Feb. 26, 1963; U.S. Pat. No. 3,198,437: Faglie, Aug. 3, 1965; U.S. Pat. No. 3,409,230: Eelkema, Nov. 5, 1968; U.S. Pat. No. 3,623,638: Henning et al., Nov. 30, 1971; U.S. Pat. No. 3,813,072: Moore, May 28, 1974; U.S. Pat. No. 3,907,203: Skillings, Sep. 23, 1975; U.S. Pat. No. 4,131,232: Pollinzi, Dec. 26, 1978.
All of the above patents, except Bellows, disclose such a reservoir and dispensing apparatus attached to a shower head.
The Skillings U.S. Pat. No. 3,907,203 discloses a shower head attachment in which a conduit discharges its liquid additive upon a diffuser 46 to facilitate mixing of the additive with the water stream from the shower head. Also, any liquid additive, such as soap, which might deposit upon the deflecting shield 42 would also be sprayed off and mixed with the discharging water stream. However, the diffuser 46 and the deflecting shield 42 in the Skillings device function as obstacles to the path of the discharging water spray to interfere with the spray pattern. Moreover, because of the force of the water spray, the small quantities of additives are more likely dispersed by the force of the spray, rather than being adequately mixed with the water.
Many of the other shower head dispensers disclosed in the above patents, such as Faglie, Moore, and Pollinzi, dispense the additives, such as liquid soap drops, directly into the middle of the spray, thereby subjecting the additives to the extreme force of the spray for dispersion instead of mixing.
None of the above patents disclose a dispenser incorporating a planar mixer surface spaced from and parallel to the longitudinal spray axis of the shower head and on the periphery of the spray pattern to permit contiguous impingement of the peripheral water spray droplets upon the mixer surface for thoroughly mixing with the additive liquid adhering to the mixer surface.